From the country that brings us panty vending machines...

I thought this was a fun little story. Japanese society obsessed with both sex and convenience is seeing the emergence and growth in pornography vending machines. This must be an attempt to diversify from the panty vending trade which came under fire in early 2004, but remains legal.

I also liked the fact that alcohol and beer vending machines must stop sales after 11:30 pm to avoid corrupting youth - meanwhile porn sells on! Bravo - proves once again why I love Japan, they're wacky!

Not much more on this, but I'll give you:

Japanese bums in undies
Porn not enough? Check out a Japnese 'happening bar'

Japanese are very open about the topic of sex I guess. I mean, many many months ago there was a shocking artlcle telling how some high school girls were boasting how many guys they screwed and how the more the better. I dont want to come under fire from any feminist out there, but hey, isnt it usually the other way around..where guys satisfy their egos?

Neverthless, birth rates are so low in Japan and the stats show that the Japanese population will shrink drastically, I supposed the government wants more people to have sex and make more babies. Perhaps thats why no one gives a doodaa anymore.

MrMoopy:

Valid points on all counts, well said and I agree. I think the birthrate issue says a lot about Japan's fast paced society, focus on careers and move towards Western ideals of self satisfaction. Such that it is no longer necessary to marry to make parents happy, to have children to make a spouse and/or parents happy, etc, etc... People are now free to concentrate on themselves and not feel guilty about it... My thoughts anyway.

Another point that I think is [also] positive is that while birthrates are low so too are the occurances of STD's - comparatively speaking anyway...

Anyway, don't want to drone on this too much... I started questioning my judgement on submitting this to Asian Sirens - there is not 'Siren' to this story so I felt guilty that I lead the readership astray... Don't want to be too 'heavy' on this otherwise wildly entertaining site. :)

Hopefully Marco will forgive me.

Best regards!

Bill

Don't worry about that Bill - this is a great article and an interesting discusssion, as I'm sure Marco will agree! I think the change to blog format has changed the focus of Asian Sirens somewhat from straight info about Asian girls to interesting topics of discussion.

Pornography and/or items of a sexual nature being sold in vending machines is by no way new in Japan, nor an attempt to diversify from panty machines. These types of machines were quite numerous the first time I lived there, in the early 90's, and I was told at that time that they had been around quite a while.

They're simply another avenue of acquisition for those who are too bashful to purchase these items in a store, and quite logical really when put in the cultural context of concern over appearance and "face" (very important in Japan).